Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of the Meta Platforms group (META), has been invited to answer questions from a group of six US senators. These representatives, members of the Senate Banking Committee, questioned the current CEO in order to know the group’s policy in the fight against crypto-currency scams on its platforms Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
The group of senators, led by Bob Menendez of New Jersey, believes that the group’s Web 2 platforms are a breeding ground for crypto-currency scams.
It is in the face of this finding that the US representatives questioned Meta about the policy conducted by the group.
Meta to answer questions about crypto fraud
Against this backdrop, senators are sending a letter to Meta’s CEO asking what it is doing, concretely, to combat crypto fraud on its platforms.
“From January 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022, 49% of fraud reports to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) involving the use of crypto currencies specified that the scam originated on social media,” the senators report. By a rough estimate, these scams cost consumers a total of $417 million. The group of senators adds “while crypto-currency scams are prevalent on social media, several Meta sites are particularly popular hunting grounds for scammers.”
Specifically, Meta will have to explain the policies it implements to “proactively find and eliminate cryptocurrency scammers.” In addition, it must specify how it is working with law enforcement to reduce fraud.
Curbing Fraud – The Issue of Platform Control
Of course, fraud should not be encouraged, but the question of content control by platform owners still arises. Today, several protocols offer decentralized hosting instead of hosting on a single service (as in this case). By definition, the latter is found in several hundred different places. This makes it difficult or even impossible to control.
Once again, it’s not all good news because while there are many advantages, there are also disadvantages. The advantage is to have a freedom of expression such as we have never known, since there is always – at least in principle – a moderation of the contents and a certain policy carried out by the social media owners. As for the disadvantages, scams will be less controlled and therefore can proliferate without being sanctioned. The balance is therefore not easy to find.
